


Three Homicides

by LectorEl



Category: Batman (Comics)
Genre: Gen, cute little assassin babies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-18
Updated: 2012-03-18
Packaged: 2017-11-06 10:11:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/417657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LectorEl/pseuds/LectorEl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three Homicides, from the perspective of a young Cass.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Three Homicides

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Who_First](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Who_First/gifts).



> For Who_First's Dragon and Tiger verse. Written in imitation of Te's style of handling Cass, to who I owe a debt of gratitude. This thing never would have been written if i hadn't seen her Cass fics.

The first time you kill, it’s an accident. You come back shaking, blood under your nails. Your partner looks up, his eyebrows asking _what happened what went wrong_ and his eyes saying _I love you I love you please don’t be hurt_ and his hunched shoulders saying _it’s something bad something awful_ and his reaching hands saying _let me make it better let me make it okay_.

You steady under his gaze, saying _come with me don’t wait for our caretaker just do it_ with the tension of your frame and the jerk of your head. He nods and takes your hand. Together, you run. Out of the house, out onto the street, deep into the heart of the city.

Your partner bites his lip until it bleeds, glancing worriedly between you, the open square, and a narrow alleyway. You nod, and slink back into the shadows. He goes up to a woman, body lying, saying _I’m lost and scared and need help_. He makes sounds to her, she makes sounds back. You still can’t understand this way of talking, and it frustrates you.

You wait until your partner walks away from the woman to pull him into the shadows and hold him tight till he stops lying. He goes loose-limbed in your arms, laying his head on your shoulder. That’s where you sleep the first night, right there against the alley wall.

***

The second time you kill, it’s intentional. You’ve been waiting, subconsciously, for the day your partner leaves. Returns to the place he was taken from, slides back into the life available to him. But he doesn’t. Every day you wake up with the sound your partner’s steady heartbeat and every night you fall asleep with his heat pressing against your side.

Your partner stays. And that’s why you do what you do. The man makes sounds at your partner, that make him shrink back in _you frighten me your hunger scares me **go away**_. The crack of bone is quieter than you think it should be, and the body drops to the ground. For a moment, your hands shake and your vision blurs. You feel nauseous.

Your partner hugs you, body molding against yours, arms tight around your middle, face scrunched into your neck, screaming _I could have died you could have died thank you thank you I love you you could have died don’t scare me like that again_. The nausea passes. Your partner is alive, and that is all that matters. You hug him back, and bury your face in his hair.

***

The third time you kill, it’s premeditated. Your partner holds your hand, making sounds at a woman, cool and pale. The line of her brow and the position of her brow say _doubtful doubtful doubtful_ , but her eyes are half lidded with _but if it works_.

Your partner says _irritating why can’t we be older just take the deal already_. At last the woman nods and hands you a picture, saying with her hard eyes and hungry smile _I hate him I hate him I want to dance on his corpse make him bleed make him suffer_. You nod back, and take the photo.

You kill the man the woman hates that evening, severing the femoral artery in his thigh. Your partner soaks a handkerchief in the blood and tucks it into a plastic ziplock bag before putting that in a paper sack. He takes your hand again and leads you from the back alley. Your hands refuse to shake.

You meet the woman in a diner, and your partner hands her the paper sack. The woman hands your partner a stack of paper that makes him coo _the possibilities things will be so good now we won’t go hungry anymore_. That night, you eat all you like and sleep in a room with a bed, your partner’s head tucked under your chin.

You watch him sleep, moonlight silvering his skin, and know that you would do anything, anything at all to keep him. You kiss his cheek saying to him _love you little brother_. Then you close your eyes, and sleep without dreams.


End file.
